The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 5, January 30, 2005, Article 22

HOW MANY COINS IN A COMPLETE U.S SET?

Mark Borckardt writes: "Further to this interesting question:

When Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. set about to complete a
collection of US coins, he used the old Green Checklist
(I believe, and Dave Bowers could verify this). Based on
that guide, his collection was in fact a complete collection.
It is certainly not fair to suggest he did not have a complete
collection because he did not own the 1870-S half dime.
That coin was not discovered until after he passed away.
He did own the unique 1870-S three dollar piece, for
example, as it was known to exist years earlier.

Every numismatist could answer this question a little bit
differently. Do we include individual die varieties of early
US coins? These were not mistakes or errors within the
Mint, thus perhaps they should be included. Do we include
every coin listed in the Guide Book? Many doubled dies
and other varieties are listed. Do we include overdates
and repunched mintmarks? Some will say yes and others
will say no. What about the US Assay Office gold coins
of California? Are these US coins to be included in the
collection? What about Fugio Cents? The list of coins to be
included or excluded could go on and on. The suggestion
that the number of entries in the Breen Encyclopedia be
tallied is not useful in my mind. A number of different
pattern coins are included in his listings, for example, but
not every pattern coin is listed.

Of course, to answer the question, we are also faced with a
moving target. Shall we include every VAM dollar variety,
and who keeps track of the list as new varieties are 
discovered?
What about the recent discovery of a new variety in the state
quarter series?

To me, a complete collection of coins would include every
date and mintmark issue currently known, including coins
from transitional years. Both 1807 half eagles, Draped Bust
and Capped Bust, must be included in a complete collection.
Overdates are not separate issues unless there was no normal
date variety for the year, such as the 1815/2 half dollar.

A few years ago, I set up an Excel spreadsheet with listings
for all US coins, including die varieties of early coins, 
pattern
coins, and other items. My spreadsheet contains about
10,000 entries, and even this is far from complete.

Before we can answer the question, we must all agree on
the specific parameters. I don't believe that it would be
possible for all of us to agree on the parameters, but it 
might
be interesting to try."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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